If you saw my ‘before’ post, then you’ll know that we had a lack of space in terms of storage and worktops. Not anymore! We’ve probably got more workspace next to our new cooker than we had in the whole of the previous kitchen – it’s mad but brilliant! The kitchen we chose is from Howdens (who were brilliant) and it’s Glendevon in flint grey. We loved the curved corners and I’m so pleased that we decided to splurge on getting these, as it works particularly well on the bit that goes around the corner from the ‘old’ kitchen to the new bit.

I’m really pleased that we chose to match the floor with the worktops – it works so well. This is American pecan wood-effect laminate flooring and worktop. I love the look of real wood but we couldn’t afford real wood flooring! But it doesn’t matter at all – this looks just as good. We’ve got an area where we’ll put a table, and it will be really good to be able to eat in the kitchen. When it arrives we’ll be living in here I think! This is where it will go (you can just about see it – the light wasn’t great today as it’s pretty gloomy outside!):

I’m standing at the front window looking at where the garage used to be for this next photo. You can get a sense of how the old garage and old kitchen have been combined – it’s such a big space!

It’s lovely and light with the window and door. We haven’t got blinds for the back windows yet, mainly because we couldn’t find what we were looking for. We’ll have to get them put up soonish though, because it’s a real sun trap at the back! In the old bit of the kitchen, the sink has stayed in the same place, but the washing machine has been moved in there and we also have a dishwasher (yay!). Not that we’ve worked out how to use it yet, because we keep forgetting to buy some dishwasher salt…anyway, this is working out well in this area. We’ve got our cutlery canteen over here because it didn’t open fully where the upper units are. We got one of those pull-out larders, which we would highly recommend if you’re redesigning your own kitchen! The boiler has been boxed in here too, so it looks much neater.

Please excuse all my washing up here!

The units are really good quality, and it’s so lovely to have more storage space. We had forgotten about so many things that we had for our kitchen, and it was great to unpack them all. We also discovered that we have quite a mug collection!

Although I love so many things about our new kitchen, our cooker has to be my favourite part. I have dreamed of having a range cooker for so long, and it’s amazing. We chose a Cookmaster by Leisure and it’s really easy to use, and with 7 burners we should have enough cooking space now! It took us a while to decide what to do about tiles, as we had seen these lovely mosaic tiles that we wanted to have. After much thought and discussion, we decided to have an upstand around all the worktops, with the tiles as a splash back only. This was a good decision – having these tiles all around the kitchen would have looked a bit weird, especially in places where the space isn’t very deep (like around the sink). I think the tiler was pleased too – it would have been a nightmare job for him!

We are so lucky to have been able to complete this project, and are so pleased with how it has turned out. It still feels really surreal to be honest! I can’t wait to get trying out new recipes and to get the final touches done. Here’s to fun times in our new kitchen!

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So the kitchen project is a really big deal for us – it’s the biggest project we’ve ever undertaken and it’s the first thing we’ve ever done from scratch with a blank canvas. I’ll be honest, it’s pretty scary! The budget wasn’t limitless and you don’t realise how much things are going to cost. This is amplified when you’re buying everything at once too! You want to make the right decisions, you don’t want to waste money, and there are some things that you decide that you really don’t want to compromise on. My friend Donna has a mantra that she lives by, which is ‘save and splurge’. She told me this before we started, and it’s so true! Save on things where you can so that you can splash out on certain things that you really don’t want to compromise on. When it comes to work like this, this is the best piece of advice ever – thank you, Donna!

I love looking through magazines/blogs/Pinterest at home styling and ideas for the home, and I often see things and think that we could make it work in our house too. But every home is different and a lot of things just wouldn’t work in ours. Although I really love having a nosey in people’s houses, one thing that bugs me a little bit about styled interiors photos is that I’m wondering what it looks like behind the camera! Just where do they put all that extra stuff?! I’d love to know! Anyway, we spent a lot of time chatting about what we thought the kitchen should look like. When it came to selecting the kitchen fittings, we discovered that we both found it easier to list what we didn’t like than what we did. Tom doesn’t like Bristol sinks (gutted – I really love them!) and I didn’t want anything too dark or old-fashioned. We had a little look around (and also at our friend’s new kitchen) and decided that we really loved the glossy units, especially the ones with curved corners. They are just so beautiful! We found the one we chose in Howdens, which is a trade-only company (lots of builders have an account there, so ask if you are planning this too).

We had a list of things that we wanted from the new kitchen, which included more storage (see below!), more workspace and more light. Our old kitchen was really dreary at night with its one little light! I also had two things that I really wanted: a range cooker and a dishwasher. Tom wasn’t so fussed about the dishwasher – we put it on the maybe list because if we couldn’t afford both then I would rather have the cooker every time! Howdens have a kitchen designing service, and they did a brilliant job of making the best of the new space. I’ve realised that functionality is a big part of our style – it needs to work for us and we need storage space! We have discovered that generally we have the same style too, although I’m probably a bit more adventurous than Tom when it comes to colour. Our kitchen will reflect that – we’ll have pops of colour but it will be predominantly neutral, but this will make it light and bright. Yay!

It has been weird having to make decisions about fixtures and fittings when we’re not used to thinking about stuff like that. The builders have been asking me things over the last couple of weeks about how we want things to be or look, and I’ve been like ‘Erm…’ – it’s mad really because we’ve had so long to think about it! It’s really fun to be at this point choosing the final things to go in there. Who knew that things like spotlight covers could be so exciting?! I can’t wait to share the finished kitchen with you! Although 5 years seems like a long time to have not done a lot to our house, I am so glad we’ve had that time to live here and find out what works and what doesn’t so that we could plan and think about what we really want to do. A lot of planning went into it, and I’m pretty sure it will be worth it!

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